An old picture did the rounds on social media showing Montel Williams with his arm around Kamala Harris — leading to much online speculation over their history.
But TMZ pointed out that Williams has already acknowledged that he and the vice president-elect were once an item. “[Harris] and I briefly dated about 20 years ago when we were both single,” he wrote in a tweet about a year ago, according to the site.
“So what? I have great respect for Sen. Harris. I have to wonder if the same stories about her dating history would have been written if she were a male candidate?”
The picture was taken in May 2001 at the Race to Erase Multiple Sclerosis gala in California. At the time, Harris was working at the Office of the City Attorney of San Francisco.
Harris went on to find love and married presumptive Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff in 2014. Emhoff has said that he’ll leave his law firm in the next couple of weeks to support his wife when she assumes her position on Jan. 20.
Harris will be the first female vice president, as well as the first African- and South Asian-American person in the office.